Political Notebook: Party observers kept from Pima County early voting sites

As early voting gets started for the general election, the political parties are unhappy that they’re being blocked again from observing at Pima County’s early-voting sites.

Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly decided not to allow election observers at the county’s early-voting sites before the August primary election.

At that time, she cited the “short notice” of the request.

“We are not able to accommodate party observers at our Early Voting sites for this election with such short notice,” she said in a July 13, 2022 memorandum.

The explanation went on: “Due to the shortage of election workers, we do not currently have additional personnel available to oversee observers and cannot accommodate these requests at this time.”

“As stated, our greatest concern is for the voter, and if we do not have the staff who are trained to ensure that voter intimidation does not occur inside our Early Voting sites, we cannot accommodate anyone other than staff inside the 75-foot limit.”

The chairs of the Pima County Republican and Democratic parties both have asked to be allowed observers at the early-voting sites as some other Arizona counties do.

Cochise County Recorder David Stevens said his office allows one Democrat and one Republican observer at the county’s only early-voting site.

The same is true in Maricopa County, where 12 early voting sites are already open. In a message, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer cited state law, allowing the political parties to have one observer at every voting location.

However, Cázares-Kelly cited the Election Procedures Manual, which defers to the judgment of the county recorders when it comes to early-voting sites.

“We tried to convince the recorder’s office to voluntarily allow observers, so that there was transparency in the process,” Republican elections attorney Eric Spencer said. “It breeds mistrust, is how I saw it.”

“We wanted them, too,” Pima County Democratic chair Bonnie Heidler said. “All the parties wanted them, and we were all told no.”

“We’re hoping it will change, but it hasn’t happened so far.”

Cázares-Kelly noted that observers “are always present when handling ballot stock, using voting equipment, issuing ballots and transferring ballots to our ballot processing center. No person or group of people of the same party are ever alone with ballots.”

Observers are allowed at election-day polling sites, which are managed by the Pima County Elections Department.

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Finchem, Lake vote by mail

Two statewide GOP candidates who want to do away with Arizona’s mail-in voting system have also used it extensively — as recently as this summer.

Mark Finchem, who wants to be Arizona’s top election official as secretary of state, has repeatedly said he wants to restrict the state’s longstanding vote-by-mail system. At the Sept. 22 debate between Finchem and Democratic candidate Adrian Fontes, Finchem said, “I don’t care for mail-in voting. That’s why I go to the polls.”

Dillon Rosenblatt, in his online publication called Fourth Estate 48, sought Finchem’s voting records from the Pima County Recorder’s office. It turns out Finchem has voted almost exclusively by mail, even in the 2020 general election.

Out of the last 30 elections, Rosenblatt found, Finchem has voted in the polling place only once in 2007 and in this year’s primary election — 28 out of 30 times by mail. Finchem explained during an interview on KTAR radio in Phoenix that he used to vote by mail “before I realized that my vote is not secure.”

From a similar voter-file request, Rosenblatt found that Kari Lake, the GOP candidate for governor, has for years voted by mail, too. But there’s a surprising twist to her voting pattern: Even after Lake filed a court argument in March that Arizona’s vote-by-mail system is unconstitutional, she voted by mail in advance of the Aug. 2 primary election.

Lake and Finchem have also filed a lawsuit together against the use of ballot tabulating machines in Arizona. A federal judge threw out their lawsuit in August, but they filed an appeal last month.

Engel loses ad backing

The House Majority PAC is backing off planned advertising for Democrat Kirsten Engel in Arizona’s 6th Congressional District — a bad sign for the Democrat.

Politico reported Thursday that the PAC pulled $300,000 of planned advertising supporting Engel off the air in the Tucson market between Oct. 24-28.

The decision came on the heels of the Republican National Committee attacking Engel for saying that she supports reducing funding to police if it goes to other services for dealing with emergencies.

Asked about shifting funding away from police in the 2020 general election debate for state Legislature, Engel said: “What we need to do is shift where the money is going. Not every call to 911 requires a police officer to show up at your door.”

“And we’ve had some bad situations when we have a police response to something that might be a mental health crisis. So, what I would support is some screening so that the appropriate personnel respond to the crises that right now the police are forced to respond to.”

Based on that and other comments, the National Republican Congressional Committee is painting Engel as a radical in a new ad. Engel faces Republican Juan Ciscomani in the general election in the new district that covers eastern Tucson and much of southeastern Arizona.